Sunday, November 28, 2010

A Mumbai Weekend

Juhu Beach in MumbaiWe drove down to Mumbai on a Friday evening and checked ourselves into the ITC Grand Central for the weekend. While the hotels have been marketing weekend getaways for a while, this was the first time we had tried such a thing. And you know what? We enjoyed it completely! It was good to just chill out, laze around and indulge in some good food.

On Friday night, we returned to Kababs & Kurries. Our last experience hadn't been particularly good but today was great. The Kakori Kababs served on Taftan breads were fantastic. The Murgh Piazza Begmati, spring chicken cooked in an onion and green coriander curry was different from the usual and an instant hit. The exotic Indian breads, Warqi Parathas and Naan-e-Bahkummach were a perfect accompaniment, and we loved the heaped juliennes of onion liberally sprinkled with chaat masala.

Kakori Kababs at Kababs and Kurries
Indian breads at Kababs and KurriesThe kulfi with falooda was good and I enjoyed the Shahi Tukra for desserts. That was one sumptuous meal!

Shahi Tukra at Kababs and KurriesThe lunch buffets at Hornby's Pavillion was quite good; we did this on one day. However what was more interesting was lunch at Gajalee, famous for its local seafood cuisine. The large Phoenix Mills mall is close to the hotel, and after some shopping, we waited to get a table at this busy little restaurant. The crisply batter-fried sea bass was heavenly. The fish was very fresh and tasted amazingly good with the special chutney.

Hornby's PavillionThe Prawns in Butter Garlic was good too as was the Fish Curry. However, it was the Fish Fry which was the memorable dish for the day. We went down one level to indulge in scoops of Natural Ice Cream - this time jackfruit.

Fried Sea Bass at GajaleeFinally, on the last day, we tried Shanghai Club, the Chinese restaurant within the Grand Central hotel. While the food was quite alright, I think it is not near as good as Chinese Room of the Grand Hyatt and Pan Asian at ITC's other Mumbai hotel, the Grand Maratha.

Shanghai Club
We enjoyed the glass noodle and lemon coriander soup. The noodles were good too - not oily. For my daughter, the highlight was clearly the Chocolate Mud Pie! Service was a little spotty here throughtout the night.

Soup at Shanghai Club

Noodles and Pork at Shanghai Club
Choco Mud Pie at Shanghai ClubWe ventured to Juhu Beach on one evening to see the sunset. This is probably the most crowded beach we have seen. Families, coconut vendors and monkeys on leashes - quite an experience!

4 comments:

Kajal@aapplemint said...

Next time you come to bombay you should give me a buzz ... maybe we can grab some coffee :)
Also was reading your blog last night and left the page open. This morning we're deciding where to go for lunch and i'm doing to go with your suggestion on Kebabs and Curries :)

Anonymous said...

@Kajal: Welcome back to the blogworld. Those chikkis sure look yummy...always pick up some when I drive past Lonavala. Re: visiting Mumbai next time, will certainly keep that in mind. And hope you enjoy the dinner at K&K.

HAREKRISHNAJI said...

wow

Shantanu said...

@Harekrishnaji: Good to see you are back here. :)